Suzuki Alstare rider Sylvain Guintoli had a fabulous welcome to the 2010 season in Australia, coming so close to a podium in race two and winning the Pirelli award for the fastest lap in the process. The lap that gave Sylvain the new ‘Pirelli Best Lap' prize was a 132.236, while his team-mate Leon Haslam won the equivalent award in race one, with a 1'32.193.

As the Fiat Yamaha team and Valentino Rossi gear up for the defence of the Italian’s title in this year’s MotoGP World Championship, his Team Manager Davide Brivio took the time to talk motogp.com through the M1 which Rossi will use for the 2010 season.

Testing continued for the Moto2 and 125cc class at Jerez yesterday under considerably better conditions than prevailed on Saturday. The morning saw the best of the weather, the sun coming out to dry a still damp track, but the afternoon saw intermittent rain making the track damp from time to time, and complicating testing.

As much as they will be missed, there was one very clear reason the 250s were replaced by the Moto2 class: Cost. The virtual monopoly that Aprilia had in the 250cc class meant that the Italian factory could ask whatever it liked for a competitive bike, and could pick and choose the riders to bless with competitive material. If you wanted to win races and have a shot at the title, you had little choice but to stump up the million plus euros that Aprilia was asking for a factory-spec RSA 250. It was possible to compete on the cheap - a privateer LE spec machine could be had for as little as 250,000 euros, though engine and chassis upgrades were still extremely expensive - but the only chance of success (and therefore publicity) would come in the rain, when the power advantage of the top bikes disappeared.